Bootleg Christmas Tree & Hopes for Holiday Future

It was a clear, cold Sunday night when Anne and I took a handsaw out into the Church of Wilderness, offered up thanks, and brought Norman the 4 ft. Christmas Tree home.

I’ve seen Christmas Tree lights all my life, but that was the first time I witnessed what the strings of bulbs attempt to emulate. The full moon had shed her skin into the brush around us, flecks of night light danced like fractional fireflies.

I can’t say there is much that’s ‘comfortable’ about winter night hiking. Depth perception gets wonky, cold gets deep, brain gets base; but there is impossible beauty to be found. Then found all over again in a new way when you tumble back into to warmth of hearth and home. And Christmas Tree.

We had our first SOS ride day and my kids are The Future in Miniature. It is a brilliant prospect. Each brings some unique ingredient, which, with mixing time outside, is blooming like a snowball. Get ready. Between Bell Ringing, serving Community Dinner, and hitting the slopes, we are a forward moving force and these kids are going to catapult into life like they launched off the flagged ‘crazy rollers’ at Keystone.

‘Tis the season. Passersby wear Santa Hats, Gold Bond is an essential ingredient in boots, even good drivers slide off the roads, and friends from the Flatlands (up to work loaf for the season) have begun to wear down the fibers of hosts’ Couches and Welcomes. We walk with a permanent defensive hunch against the cold and roads are not to be trusted. Still we wait for snow. Only people from Texas think these are the best skiing conditions ever. And I can say that because it is my job to ask such things.

Ah but yes, my job will be changing as of the New Year. I escaped retail just in time and will be scaling my Breck hours back to once a week in order to make time for a Grown Up Job!

As a Community Support Coordinator with the Family and Intercultural Resource Center I will facilitate the application process and advocate for local families seeking Medicaid and CHP+. It is an ideal and promising opportunity. These days it is near miraculous to obtain a position in one’s field of study (especially when your field of study was ‘Institutions & Policy’…). I am further thrilled by the  potential for a Colorado Trail Fundraising Hike next summer.

And so, as 2011 wraps up, remember these things:

~It’s always worth it to get out there.

~Our future is brilliant and bombing the slopes. (so ride easy)

~ Keep your chin up and your boot liners dry.

~Sometimes you’ll strike gold.

Snow Minor Matter